The Sapling
by Mysterious Panther
Summary: The Sapling in this case is a boy who is terrified of people. When his parent sends him to the Solstice School of the Remarkably Advanced. He learns friends are the only way to survive this school with its warring factions.
1. The Sapling

Hey everyone! This is Mysterious Panther coming to you via Fanfiction to give you a story. It's a OC submission academy story with your OCs attending The Solstice School of the Remarkably Advanced in Castelia city in Unova. So go ahead! Read. Get ready to smell the coffee. Writer of the Void and I came up with this idea recently and thought 'What the hell. Let's do it.' Check out the Form on the bottom of the page and remember! **Submit your OC via PM**! Reviews could get this story taken down and 'sides PMs do not limit themselves to one per chapter

**Quick Note:**

A major part of this story will be a competition between school factions in several different tournaments in a point based system. The students will be put into groups that will be decided later. The number is currently unknown right now because we need to see how many good heavily detailed characters we receive and how many we can put in evenly balanced teams.

The tournament will start in the first semester with the winning faction from last semester in control. Then second semester will then be ruled by the first semester tournament winners and so on. Those who defy the rules set by the faction will be prosecuted by the faction's members. Let's just say you better hope the Head Master finds you first.

**Edit: The P.O.V has been switched to 3****rd**** person!**

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><p>Josh was sitting on his bed attempting to calm himself down and thought <em>'I can do this, I have to do this.' <em>The thought of being around them again is horrifying but he has to; it's this or he'll have to go back to another foster home and get taught there since Sarah won't allow him to stay away from his educational growth. Josh's guardian can be such a frightening persuader, personally he thinks it partially has to do with being a lawyer.

Quickly going towards his bedroom door Josh gave himself a glance in the mirror and sighed. He find himself automatically trying to push the few strands of his raven hair to the side of his face and readjusting the school's required necktie back into a presentable state. Gulping at what his rushed morning resulted to as he look at himself up and down, Josh turn the rest of his body towards the full length mirror and with a pale hand he set to fix his sloppy attire; starting with his gleaming silver tie which with a swift tug brought itself to a formal state while choking him. Josh abruptly adjusted it and approved it with a single motion before checking the rest of his outfit to find little devils of fluff gathering.

With nimble hands Josh quickly push off small pieces of lint that seemed hell-bent on sticking to his golden school-issued blazer and loose black shirt where most of them have gathered. The angry lint spirits quickly sprang back to life by clinging to his new black slacks as they spiraled downward making him seemingly even more in a hurry as Josh swatted at the little devils to fall off.

Giving him another look over and deeming himself moderately clean, Josh glided out the door giving his new charcoal leather shoes a test run.

Josh flew down the hall briefly touching his silver chain necklace while uttering a small prayer to the almighty poke lord, praying for him to cause some object to change Josh's guardian's mind of sending to such a prestigious school with _so_ many people.

Josh thought about his new school the 'Solstice School of the Remarkably Advanced'. The school itself has a pretty snooty ring to it. Only a few months ago, if someone had said that him, Joshua Michaels, would be attending such an elite and rich school, he would probably have found that person insane, scampering away from humanly contact. But then again, when your guardian is a very successful lawyer, he guessed signing your newly-adopted son up for school is practically nothing.

As Josh finally power walked out of the hallway towards the kitchen, he heard a familiar voice calling out from the said room. "Josh! You need to get going! You're going to be late! Oh! By the way dear, I'll be home at seven, hopefully," her voice growing softer as he appear in the door frame begrudging to go but cooperative. She gives him a warm smile from across the room but a puzzled look is soon thrown as she stares at his disheveled apparel.

He grabs his standard school-issued black leather satchel and hangs it over his shoulder as he slows his pace as the final steps of the house slowly crept up upon him.

'_Seems like Arceus is too busy today to help me'_ Josh thought to himself, checking his satchel for all his needed supplies.

School Books? _Check._

PokeGear? _Check. _

Novels? _Wouldn't leave home without them. _

Sketch book and art supplies? _Of course._

Glacia's and Venom's Pokeballs?_ Uhmm._

Josh hurriedly patted his blazer's pockets. Finding the usually comforting bulge of the spheres missing, Josh quickly rummage again through the stiff black satchel only to receive the same result. The black-haired boy swiftly turn heel back to the kitchen to find his guardian already walking towards him.

Josh instinctively shrank back against the white colored wall as the slightly taller woman pitter pattered quietly against the dark brown wooden floors. He watched as Sarah hesitantly stopped a few feet away from him and opened her clasped hands to reveal his missing friends. Her sweet honey colored eyes shifted from her hands to his own grass green eyes. Uncomfortable with the her stare, Josh shifted in place and drew his eyes to the pokeballs in her hands.

Sensing his discomfort, Sarah tossed the two pokeballs to Josh and with absolute grace turned her suit covered body to the counter where she reached for a steaming pot of Joe. Her mud-brown ponytail swung in the air as he caught his partners with little effort.

With a slight wave of the hand Josh left the small ground leveled apartment and with whatever courage he had left, Josh sauntered towards the alley ways which would soon lead him to his worst fear.

Twenty minutes later outside of Josh's new school, he approached the weather-worn metal entrance gates of the SSRA finding the castle-turned-school lived up to it's reputation of being worth the large budget. The gardens in front of the relic stood out proudly with various bright colors instead of the gray stones that the castle was made from. Leaning to the right of the gates and standing on the tips of his toes, Josh could see that behind the extravagant castle was a large auditorium which he could only assume is where they held the battles or something relatively worse.

After fidgeting with the rusted handle for well over ten minutes, Josh manage to open the screeching gates that seemed to beg for a oiling. He frantically searched the area for someone that might have came to investigate the loud noise but was relived when not a soul made their presence known.

Glancing around a final time he walked up to the looming cedar door that held the key to his fate. Beyond that door was Josh's future as a Solstice Academy student. '_Arceus! This would be the perfect time to intervene.' _He mused to himself. Finding no giant togepi or a deranged hobo to kidnap him from this fate, Josh grabbed the mildly cool jeweled doorknob and gave it a slight twist.

"Took you long enough." A voice called out from beside the youth.

Josh swiftly turned to his left, backing up, as he found a much older girl smirking at him as she coolly leaned against the castle's wall. The world seemed to tilt as he fell backwards scrambling to get away from this odd stranger.

"W-who are y-y-you?" He question out loud, keeping his eyes on her.

"I'm just a simple nobody, as long as no one introduces themselves first." The onyx-hair stranger answered as she readjusted her also black bomber jacket over her silver vest.

Finding his legs uncooperative, Josh used what little arm strength he had left and pulled himself up with a nearby stone ledge.

She looks at him, skeptical as he uneasily stood up. The anxiety filling his every muscle continued to quiver as he placed his hands behind him using the ledge as an support.

"J-Joshua M-M-Michaels." He answered meekly as she turned herself completely towards him now. Josh quickly recognized her outfit being that of the school's uniform.

The girl gave a nod as if she knew his name all along and quickly leaned forward. By reflex Josh scrunched tighter against the wall as her blue-gray eyes inspected dangerously close to his face before abruptly pulling back and walking away from him.

"Hey! W-who are you? Why a-a-aren't you in class?" Josh asked her as the hairs on the back of his neck began to raise.

The teenager paused for a moment before glancing back in his direction.

"Call me Hawke and I could ask you the same question. Why aren't you in class, Mister Scaredy Skitty?" She called back before continuing on her walk on the well groom lawn.

Josh quickly brushed off the remark and found the strength to stand normally gradually returning. He slowly reach for the door knob again when it dawns on him. _Arceus came through! _

Though the girl herself is slightly weird a single person is better than a room full of strangers...to him at least.

After a pregnant pause Josh gather what wits he had about him and stalked after Hawke who strolled leisurely around the castle grounds.

"Welcome back, Mister Skitty. I assure you. Your choice was chosen wisely." Hawke greeted him with a sly grin as she turned around to face Josh.

Josh nervously concentrated on her combat shoes, which he noticed didn't match her uniform attire as she wandered closely by him before letting out a harsh whistle.

Suddenly plagued by the thought this was an ambush, Josh broke his concentration and gave his surroundings another look over only to find a coy smile on Hawke's face as she looked beyond him. Confused, Josh looked behind himself again to discover a looming black hound with giant horns staring fiendishly at him.

Josh must admit; he have never ran faster in his life than today when he saw that houndoom gazing at him like Josh was his next meal. It was when Josh turned my head to see how much distance the boy had on him, did he see Hawke and the houndoom locked in a brief tussle.

Hawke had him locked in position; her hands gripping his horns keeping him from biting and in place.

As Josh surveyed the new territory he had ran into he could only see several fields filled with various sporting goods which would have been helpful to have closer to the castle in this situation. By the time Josh would have come back with teacher or a weapon the houndoom might have already finished off his new acquaintance.

Swallowing his rising anxiety attack, Josh spun back around ready to confront the hell-hound when Hawke does the unthinkable.

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><p>Alright. Cut! The OCs will be split into groups for the competition don't try to create the group right now wait until the next chapter. We'll need OCs for both students and teachers so send them in as well. Feel free to PM me if you have questions or ask the question in a review.<p>

Name: (Preferably not Japanese)

Nickname: (Optional)

Gender:

Age: (10 to 19 for students, for teachers they have to be at least 24 and can be anything above that as long as it isn't anything to extreme.)

Teacher, student, or Dean: (Which one are you?)

What they teach: (If they're a teacher.)

How long have they been in the school: (They can enter the school when they are a minimum age of ten years old or join at any age until they're over nineteen. Say how many years they have been at the school and if you're sending a teacher in it's how long the teacher has been teaching.)

Occupation: (Battler, coordinator, breeder, ranger, or something like a poke-stylists, poke-artists, dancers, poke Athletes, just bums or something else. Doesn't have to generic)

Hometown: (It can be anywhere as long as it's a real place in the games.)

Where they are staying: (Since Void's OC will be staying with his guardian in the city everyone either has the choice to live at the school, in a apartment alone [If legal], or with family in the city.)

Personality: (As detailed as possible. The longer the personality the better chance of your OC is being used. A Paragraph or less be ignored.)

Strengths: (Have a even number of strengths, weaknesses and fears so they'll balance out.)

Weaknesses: (No body is perfect there has to be some.)

Fears: (They can be anything.)

History: (As detailed as you possibly can.)

Family: (Import family members and any important info on them.)

Appearance: (Height, weight, skin color, build, hair color, length, and style, any distinct features, and anything else you feel like adding.)

Clothing:

-Uniform: They have to have the school colors, the school colors are gold, black, and silver grey can replace silver.

For Males: A dress shirt short or long sleeved, the choice to wear a blazer, sweater, or sweater vest with the school crest on the back, black dress pants or shorts, a tie or bow tie, socks, and dress shoes of there choice.

For Females: They have the same choices and same dress shirt, shoes, ties or bow ties and socks. They have the added choice to wear a skirt, they have to have there hair up in some way, and they have the choice to wear a dress of their choice as long as it has at least on of the school colors.

-Satchel: (Every student gets one when enrolling and any need books for the school, include anything else you want your OC to have. No guns or any weapons you think a school wouldn't know. If you're unsure then feel free to ask.) [Weapons will be given to a selected few OCs in due time, but that is our decision]

-Everyday: (What they wear during battles and everyday outside of school.)

-Swimwear: (For trips to the beach with or without the school having this happen and possible swim classes.)

-Winter wear: (The school can have field trips to colder areas)

-Nightwear: (Scenes in the night can happen.)

-Formal wear: (For special events and school dances.)

-For teacher what they wear when teaching: (Self explanatory.)

Love Interest: (If they want their OC in a romance and what they're looking for in a person whether it be looks, personality, and/or anything else.)

What do they think of Hawke: [Please for the love of the Maker. She is not going to be your best friend and will share her information with your character. She is going to cause bunch of mischief between factions and will hold your secrets till a high bidder finds her price. If you think you can handle being her friend. Good Luck! To people who find her a love interest; I salute you]

What do they think of Josh: [Yes. Josh is a coward, so he won't just instantly open up to your OC and be their best friend. He'll be more then likely run away than facing your lovesick OC. Hopefully you won't go insane filling this out like we did making it.]

Pokemon: (Lets trying to make the pokemon realistic meaning a ten year old won't have a Dragonite or something like that. No shiny pokemon, Pseudo legendary Pokemon, Legendary pokemon, or Lucarios. You can have a eevee-lution but they'll count as two pokemon. Lets also limit the number of your team per age group 10-13 two, 14-16 four, 17-19 all six.)

-Species:

Gender:

Nickname: (Optional)

Personality:

Moves:

Other: (Anything you want to add info wise, if they wear anything, is distinct features that make them unique. We do not allow any form of color alteration on pokemon. What we mean is your eevee can have a bow on its ear but cannot be purple.)

Alright! Tell us what you think~


	2. And So It Begins

**Authors' Notes: **We are still accepting OCs we want mostly teachers and two other none student openings since the majority of our submissions so far have been students. The subjects being taught in the school have been decided and several spots have been filled.

The Teaching Specialties that are taken are; History(mythology)/ Science Teacher, Battle Coach, Literature Teacher, and Math Teacher.

These are the subjects you can choose from if you send a teacher OC: Poke-Stylist teacher, Coordinator Coach, Physical Education teacher/Sports Manager,

~*Ranger Instructor. (Due to a low number of Ranger Students we're not sure if it'll be used)

+ We also need a secretary for the school since our Headmaster is not a very reliable person.

+ We'll need a OC who will be the school's doctor.

A bunch of information of the factions will be brought up in this chapter. Plus additional information will be in the authors' notes at the bottom of the chapter that will pertain more to the readers then the OCs.

The P.O.V. for the rest of the story will no longer be first person since it leaves things vague and I (Pan) am not very well developed in that type of writing.

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><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

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><p>Hawke roughly let go of the beast's horns and let him pounce onto her athletic frame. Stunned, Josh watched in horror as he found himself watching what he could consider the last moment of Hawke's life.<p>

"Who's a good boy?" Hawke cooed as she hugged the houndoom's muscular neck, patting his thick hide while using him as a way to pull herself up. The said hound gave a soft whine in response as his trainer brushed the dirt off her prized jacket.

"C'mon Skitty-boy. You look like you never seen a beauty like him before," Hawke called out to the boy, who was still as stone.

Josh quickly refocused, then hesitantly walked closer to the pair. He still kept a large distance between them, though, for the fear that the houndoom found him more appetizing than friendly.

Hawke gave her partner a affectionate pat on the back before turning back towards her new acquaintance. Josh gave her a blank look as she took a few more strides in his direction before stopping.

"What's his name?" Josh found himself oddly asking as the hell-hound lagged behind his trainer for the sake of shade which her shadow provided.

"Apollo," she answered, giving the Pokemon in question a grin before motioning him back to the building. The houndoom gave a slight grunt before bounding back into the building's shadow where he seem to disappear into the slightest sliver of darkness.

Josh's hands began to sweat as thoughts of what this stranger could do swirled endlessly in his mind. He pondered at the possibilities as Hawke gazed up at the sky, watching what few clouds there were float by.

_She could have her houndoom pounce on me and roast me alive! _He gave the girl another glance to find her picking the band-aid on her nose mindlessly. _Houndooms are fire types, right? I should know this. Maybe I'm not cut out for such a fancy school when I can't even remember a certain pokemon type. How embarrassing. Maybe when they find out I can't even do that they'll send me home!...Yeah right. _Josh shook his head miserably, drawing the girl's unwavering attention for a split second, giving a person whose been spying on them a chance...

"Well hello there my lovelies! Having a good time skipping my school's classes just to run around?" An effeminate voice called to the pair, startling both of them.

Josh's heart seemed to stop He wildly looked around the trees and what little shrubbery the school had trying to find the owner of the voice. _Is this other girl going to help Hawke hide my body? Arceus if you are there-_

"Hiya Matt! I was just showing the newbie the school grounds so that he won't get lost when he goes to class tomorrow," Hawke joyfully replied to Matt.

"More likely than not I think your just trying to get information on him," Matt replied as he came flying into view on his togekiss.

Josh sucked in a large breathe and held on to it as the new person and pokemon gracefully landed. Matt gave Josh a wink before executing a perfect hair flip that sent his snowy locks back into place.

_What a creepy guy... And here I thought he was a she! _Josh thought as his body involuntarily shivered at the man's broad display.

"What kind of person do you think I am? As a student of your school, Matt I am honored to say that I would never sink so low!" Hawke pouted, taking her hands out of her pockets and clasping them behind her back.

"So who are you?" Matt asked the new student as he checked over his precious togekiss. Josh could only stare as the growing anxiety inside him began to hurt.

"This here, Headmaster, is Joshua Michaels. He will be attending your academy for the rest of the school year," Hawke swiftly supplied as Matt had began to walk closer to the shaking boy.

"Ah! I am honored to have you at my school, Joshua. Your mother was a very persuasive woman," Matt gave a slight bow and replied," I, sir, am Matthew Fairbairn, but you may call me Matt, or H.M. as some of the other students affectionately nicknamed me. I am the handsome Headmaster of Solstice School of the Remarkably Advanced, and I'm wondering why you both are not in the auditorium with the other students."

"It's-it's... a pleasure to meet you," Josh stuttered.

"I should to be there now," Matt replied, checking his gold wristwatch, "giving a welcome speech and other _glorious _goodies. But instead I am out here finding two students lagging behind. Now my secretary will bug me even more." He gave the last part out in a whine as the memories of his scary secretary attacking him with a newspaper reappeared in his mind.

"S-s-sorry-" Josh attempted to apologize for causing the headmaster's late arrival but he was quickly hushed.

"Now now. Apologies will not save me from her wrath. Let's just hurry and get there." Matt quickly grabbed Josh's wrist and began to drag him towards the auditorium, which Josh could now see over a large hill. Hawke cheerfully followed, humming a odd tune as she half-skipped, half-walked, behind them.

Josh began to shake violently as the man dragged him along. Hawke could swear the boy was going to faint as soon Matt held onto his hand.

"Hm. How should I phrase this?" Hawke aloud, "Matt, you're causing the boy to hyperventilate," she told the young man as she prodded him in his ticklish ribs.

"Q-q-quit that," Matt giggled, letting go of Josh's wrist and slapping Hawke's hand away from his side. He protectively placed his arms around his ribs while sending a glare at the girl before switching his attention to the panting boy.

"What's the matter with him?" he asked as Josh held onto the wrist that Matthew had just previously been holding on to.

"Social anxiety? Fear of people or perhaps the anxiety of being the new student?" Hawke answered, giving the boy some breathing space by walking over to Matthew. She held her hands tauntingly in the air near Matt's somewhat exposed ribcage, threatening to tickle him again if he chose to move in closer towards the hyperventilating student.

Matt's togekiss quickly acted by fluttering above Josh, trying to keep the sun's hot rays off of him as he threatened to puke his guts out. Matt and Hawke waited patiently for a moment, neither moving until Josh could calm himself down and weakly stand up.

Josh swallowed a gulp of air before he faced his companions, "Y-y-yes, I am anthrophobic," he admitted. He quickly wiped the nervous sweat off his brow and hands on his slightly messy uniform.

Matt gave him a small mock applaud before he started to push Hawke by the small of her back into the auditorium.

"Thank you, my lovely Raine," Matt called out to his togekiss. "Come on, Josh!"If I'm later than I'm already am, my secretary will beat me up." he whined, waving to Josh to follow his lead past the large metal doors into the equally huge auditorium.

Though he was still a bit nauseated from the small panic-attack from Matt's contact, Josh followed the pair until Matt shooed Hawke into a well-populated section of the student section. Matt then motioned for Josh to go sit in a slightly less-occupied area of seats before he took off towards the stage with his togekiss dancing in the air above him.

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><p>Tempted by the sudden isolation, Josh began to slowly ease out of the crowded section and walk back to the empty rows behind him when a small voice called out to him in a half whisper.<p>

"Where are you heading to?"

Josh whipped his head around to see a slightly older-looking girl watching him from her seat in a row in front of him. She tilted her head in confusion sending a shower of chestnut brown hair falling off her shoulder.

Josh gave her a blank look as he studied the blue feather extension that seemed to tickle her neck when she brought her eyes to his. Josh shifted his eyes away from her own hazel orbs as more students seem to gather behind in curiosity.

Josh pointed away from the other student's seats and to the empty seats away from them and replied nervously," I-I was just going over there to sit down."

The girl gave him a pearly white smile before reaching for his hand. "There's no need to be shy! Come on! There is no fun being alone! Here, I'll introduce you to the new students that I just met! I'm Lauren, Lauren Silverfeather," she announced proudly, still reaching for his evasive hand.

Josh swiftly placed both of his hands in his pants pocket to avoid even more unnecessary human contact while inwardly gulping hard. He groaned internally when he opens his mouth to speak, only to find his voice gone, and just a closed throat welcoming him.

Lauren quickly recovered from his abrupt reaction to her friendliness and continued on.

"This lovely girl here with the platinum blonde hair is Christina, but she makes everyone, including _me_, call her Chris. Which is weird, considering that Chris is a very masculine name and she's a girl, which doesn't suit her, but that's just me rambling.I'm sorry Chris, what was your last name again? Was it Bart? Or maybe it was Hart. Hart! Yes!" Lauren told the muted Josh while pointing to the girl, Chris. She then waved her finger in the air as she finally remember Chris' last name.

"Now who else is there? Ah, yes! Collin! Come here," she remembered, smacking a fist into the palm of her hand as she barked out his name.

A small grunt responded to her as "Collin" rose from between the rows of seats, slightly disheveled and rubbing his face to wake up himself up. Josh quickly notice the looming figure a little off to his right and was slightly tickled when he notice three large strands of forest green hair protruding boldly off from Collin's shaggy hairdo.

Finding a potentially new acquaintance hiding behind Lauren, Collin quickly perked up and bounded towards the two in hope to greet the new boy himself.

"Hi! Hello! I am Collin Greywald," he greeted, putting his hand out to give the Josh a handshake. _Guys like handshakes, didn't they? I should research this in the future... Why isn't this guy shaking back? Do I have something on my hand? Nope clean, _Collin thought to himself as an awkward pause settled in.

Josh could only stare at this stranger's hand as he fought the urge to run out of there screaming like a bat out of hell with everyone trying to touch him. _Why? Why Arceus? Why? _he mentally questioned the pokemon god.

Lauren and Collin glanced at each other as Josh seemed to having some sort of mental-break down. The latter could feel another panic attack swelling in his breast. _No, no, no, no! _he thought erratically as the pressure on his chest seemed grow tighter when the two came closer, intending to try and help him. Josh put out a arm to stop them from getting any closer as he doubled over.

"Is he okay? If he needs a hug, I can give him one. I think he needs a hug," a meek voice began to ramble. A smaller framed girl pushed her way ahead of the two idle teens, revealing herself to be the fitting owner of the voice.

"Hi! My name is Nikki Murcott. But you probably don't want to hear that since you look like you're having a heart attack. What was it about heart attack victims are you suppose to do? Hmm... Was is hold them upside down? No. Make them eat a spoonful of sugar? Yeah wait that's hiccups. Drat! Well I tried," the girl introduced herself in front of Josh. Josh found it even harder to breathe with her person being so near his.

"Here! A hug will help calm you down. Just like the ancient pokemon trainers did to tame their first pokemon," she informed him, encasing his huddled frame with a rough hug. Josh could barely breathe already when the girl's pigtails clotted his airways. The strange girl was hugging him! Touching him in general was a big no-no! This definitely would not be helping his heart attack if he was having one. He could swear that her long black hair was tickling his lungs as she continued to hug him even harder.

Josh wheezed as his lungs tightened and his vision began to blur. _Great job, Josh. First day of school and you already had two panic attacks and could possibly die because of a hug, _Josh mentally mourned. With what little strength the attack had left him with, Josh pushed the girl off of him and scrambled backwards up the stairs.

Nikki fell onto her bottom with a simple "Ouch!" and watched with the others as the panic stricken Josh threw himself up the stairs. Collin and Lauren gently helped Nikki up by her arms while Josh was almost to the end of the stairs.

He seized his goal of getting off the stairs by jumping, when a pair of black slack clad legs placed themselves in front of him. The owner of the legs and Josh tumbled down the stairs with a couple 'Ow!'s' and 'Yeowches! until they were back where Josh started. Students on either sides of the stairs watched the two boys untangle themselves and uneasily stand up with the help of the handrail, which they luckily banged into a couple of times.

"Well this wasn't the best greeting I ever had, but it was certainly one of the most painful," the boy muttered as he gathered his bearings, eyeing the boy who knocked him down the flight of stairs. "Well, now that's out of the way," he said while dusting the small clumps of dirt and grime off his ironed silver shirt, "I guess we can introduce ourselves. I am Chase Muffett, a bloody handsome young fella, and quite a friend."

The older boy, Chase, patted Josh on the back before settling himself down on a nearby chair. Josh could only respond in ragged breathes as he recovered from his fall and from another touch of human contact. He laid splayed across the ground breathing heavily, trying to get as much oxygen as possible into his aching lungs.

Chase and the others watched as Josh held his hand to his frantic heart, as if trying to calm it. The tension seemed to slacken, but the health of a certain anthrophobic was slowly wearing.

The group of new students, except Chase, who found his chair to be oddly comfy and refused to leave it, swarmed around Josh, who felt all the air leave his body as every one of their faces watched him in concern.

"Gareth, pick him up for me will you?" A familiar voice rang in his ear. _Who?_

"Hey-!"

"Watch it!"

"Gah!"

"What the -?"

The voices of the students he just met bounced around as he was picked up from the cold ground and held in some strange arms that felt hard against him. Josh twitched involuntarily as he was held by his 'savior'. He watched through his half lidded eyes as the person carried up the stairs.

"Still in there, Skitty boy?" Hawke asked as she glanced at him a distance away while signaling Gareth, who Josh could now identify as a gallade in the brighter light, to put him down. Josh nodded uncertainly as he clung to the gentle warrior for support.

The group of newbies quickly ascended the stairs to find a woozy Josh clinging to a gallade that held him up. Lauren quickly walked over to the boy, who instantaneously became nauseated again. Gareth immediately took a battle stance as the girl threaten to harm the boy he was taking care of by standing just too close.

Lauren quickly backed up and swiftly had a hand hovering a pokeball on her belt. Her glasses glinted hazardously as she eyed the pokemon who 'held her new friend hostage'.

"Calm down, Lauren," Hawke smoothly told the younger girl as she walked between Lauren and Gareth.

"Who the hell are you and how do you know my name?" Lauren asked as she stared down the grinning Hawke.

"Lauren, my darling, you yourself just told everyone in the stadium your name when you announced it to poor Josh over there," Hawke quickly turned her back to the glaring girl and walked to the said boy while giving him a one over.

"I think you can stand," Hawke told Josh while returning gallade back to his pokeball, which she placed into her bomber jacket's pocket. Lauren calmed a bit as Josh ungracefully stood to attention from the lack of support.

"Hey kid are you-" Collin tried to ask, but was quickly shushed as a booming voice reverberated around the battle auditorium.

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><p>"May I have your attention please." The loud talking from the student body soon began to quiet as the students watched Matt walk to the center of the large ground levelled battle field.<p>

"Everyone please take your sets so we can begin," Matt commanded. Everyone, save a few newbies and Hawke, seated themselves in the stadium's nice plush benches.

The students were shifting themselves into comfortable positions when eight students walked on to the field in groups of two. Each pair had identical armbands, but different colors, varying from silver to crimson to aqua and to bronze.

"Alright! Everyone listen up! I'm explaining this once and then I'm going back to take a nap! Newbies take note since this will be your first year here," Matt announced to the crowd of eager students.

"Every new school year in the first semester we have a competition between our school's four factions. They compete in various events throughout the first semester to gain points, and the team with the most points at the end of the first semester wins. What the winning faction will win is the authority over the other students with limited teacher interference, as the heads of the student council, and their choices will be enforced by their fellow members," Matt clarified. He nervously began to sway his hips as if he were dancing to some silent music.

"Now the factions themselves are the Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. They have smaller teams within each element. The bearers of the zodiac signs will be the co-captains who, with other co-captains of their element, will set up a team for each customized event. For example, a co-captain of Earth would be a Virgo and they will help lead the Earth element with a co-captains Taurus and Sagittarius. These people are chosen by the other members of the group."

A few new students quickly jotted down this information on to scraps of paper, determined not to be one of those stereotypical newbies.

Matt paused and looked intensely at the students in the stands."Now something that will be different this year from last year is that it used to be that students could choose to whether or not to join a faction or remain neutral and not compete in a competition. But after _some _dolts _complained __a_bout my _fabulous _competitions, it is now mandatory to join a faction," Matt gave the students a minute for the information to soak in.

"You all are free to choose what faction you will join, and you're free to leave it at anytime, but you must either find another faction to join or rejoin your previous faction within three days of leaving it or you will be placed in a permanent faction of my choice," he concluded as his magnificent togekiss landed beside him. He gave Raine a small pat on the head before adjusting the microphone headset.

Matt clapped his hands together and spoke once more. "Now, to commemorate the beginning of the tournament, two co-captains from last year's Air and Earth factions will battle each other in a double battle as the co-captains from Fire and Water will face each other."

"Now for the co-captains representing the Air Faction; Aaron Glider and Dallas Carson," Matt waved the carriers of Gemini and Aquarius towards his right side. "Don't hurt yourselves, girls!"

A few girl newbies gasped aloud as a handsome chocolate brown haired young man led the way to the Air faction's end of the field. His partner slowly trailed after him using his choppy golden hair as a shield his own eyes from the brightness of the spotlights.

As Matt called him, the green eyed delinquent named Dallas gave his partner a slight nudge as Aaron almost spaced completely out from the lack of action. Aaron slowly snapped back to attention and gave Dallas a blank look before shifting his footing.

"For the Earth Faction; Kit Noroit and Gwendolyn Saphira," Matt exclaimed while motioning the two girls to the opposite side of the field.

A girl with a vulpix like face quickly ran over to the sidelines and shouted something inaudible which, to the few who heard it, made them quickly rise up and cheered. Her smile grew wider as the crowd momentarily cheered 'Kit! Kit!' until a sharp look from Matt silenced them. Her partner, on the other hand, quietly tagged along behind her comrade until she reached her destination.

"Representing the Fire Faction is sizzling Nash Breaker and Samantha Riverdale." Matt quickly issued the two to a bench on the Air Faction's side until the match was over.

The male, now known as Nash, ran his left and heavily scarred hand through his slightly spiky and messy hair before waving to the crowd. He waved until he realized what hand was waving with, then quickly hid it behind his back. The girl stood still, moving a strand of brown hair out of her black framed glasses before she noticed she was being stared at by the entire school. Samantha quickly grew flustered and rushed to the bench, hoping that the faster she could get there, the faster the attention would shift off of her.

Matt then flamboyantly twirled and point towards the final two "And _finally_ representing the Water Faction is the well known Jet Carden and Dom Haydu."

The pair of boys took their time getting to the last bench, but not before Dom walked towards the sidelines and faced the crowd. He threw a fist in the air and the water faction members hidden in the audience loudly began to stomp their feet in a odd, but adrenaline pumping rhythm, which sent the spectators into a small frenzy.

Matt gave a heavy sigh as the stomping soon silenced, and the black haired perpetrator took his seat next to his almost identical friend, who gave him a high five.

"Now that the competitors are introduced, we will start the tournament with matches being Earth Faction verses Air Faction and Fire Faction vs Water Faction. The first battle being Water against Air. Now let the first competition of the semester... _begin_," the Head Master declared as the lights dramatically dimmed and then grew brighter, the crowd hollering and cheering as the first battlers sent out their prized pokemon.

* * *

><p><strong>Authors' Notes:<strong> Don't worry! These aren't all of the Faction members! The rest haven't been introduced just yet! Also when a competition is completed there will be a score sheet at the bottom of the Author's Notes with the current points number of points each faction has. We would also love to dedicate this chapter to Fear the Pika who humbly took this chapter and turned it into something everyone could stomach.

**Quick Review:** OCs that have pictures of the signs of the zodiac on them will be one of the three co-captains each with their own team band; those that aren't a co-captain will just have a arm band that is the color of their faction.

Team Colors

Crimson = Fire

Silver = Air

Aqua = Water

Bronze = Earth

The Co-captain will represent the Zodiac Signs in each Element. Likes Aries will be a co-captain of the Fire team and Libra will be one of the Air.

-Fire: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius

-Earth: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn

-Water: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces

-Air: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius

The new OCs featured in this chapter are:

The Flamboyant Matthew Fairbairn by Yours Truly (Pan)

Gwendolyn Saphira by SilverRoxas

Samantha Riverdale by CoffeeTarts

Dom Haydu by Cheese In A Box

Jet Carden by Silvershark94

Nash Breaker by 3rdbase101

Collin Greywald by Sambob

Kit Noroit by Kitsune Mezurashii

Chase Muffet by Peacewolf

Aaron Glider by NeverSometimesNever

Christina Hart by Munia

Dallas Carson by Lururi

Nicole "Nikki" Murcott by ButterflyJazz

Lauren Silverfeather by (the lovable) Tyltalis


	3. When the Time is Right, Fight!

Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay, I (Pan) was on vacation and couldn't finish editing in time to update before I left. OCs are still being accepted. The teaching positions that **ARE **taken are: Math teacher, the Head Master's secretary, History/Mythology and Science teacher, Battle Coach, School's Doctor, and Literature/Equestrian Teacher.

The rest of the positions are still open; if you already sent your OC's and it's position is not mentioned do not fret. We are simply just allowing more people to apply.

**Quick Note: **For the people who asked or questioned in their reviews about Josh and his fear, let me explain. Anthrophobic is the phobia of people/human contact/socializing in general. He was scared at first with the encounter of the gallade because Gareth looked human at first, but when Josh realized Gareth was just a gallade he was less tensed; sense it's better for Josh to have a pokemon that looks human than a human in general.

This is dedicated to the lovely Firebirdxox aka Fawkes who spent her own time to help us edit this crazy chapter.

**Chapter 3**

Matt gracefully walked off of the battlefield as the trainers went into position.

The school referee who had been patiently waiting on the sideline jogged to the middle of the field and announced, "Trainers! This will be a Do or Faint double battle, so no potions or any other battle aids! The battle ends when either team is out of usable pokemon. Trainers, release your pokemon!"

"Wrath! Show these kids what a real battle feels like!" Dallas called out. The newly released camerupt yawned cutely and blinked innocently at his trainer who silently fumed. The crowd laughed at the irony of the duo and began to murmur softly to each other.

Dallas' hand twitched involuntarily; perhaps the slight show of cute-ness was a bit much, but they would soon learn.

Aaron gave his partner a lopsided grin while he threw his own partner onto the field in a mocking fashion of Dallas', who in return gave him a slightly threatening growl.

Aaron soon recovered from his small outburst of silliness and let the fiery battling demon inside him emerge by letting out his faithful companion, a simple swellow.

Respectfully, Kit sent out her own electric pokemon who shook its fox-like body, charging the static that cackled fiercely in the air. A large red bird-like figure loomed besides it. Many trainers instantly recognized it as blaziken, a brave dual type whose spirit thrived on the field.

"Begin!" The referee yelled, moving out of the way of the feuding pokemon.

Kit quickly gained ground by commanding her jolteon, "Kid! Use thunder on swellow!"

Aaron, with a wave of the hand, told his beloved silent pokemon to counter it swiftly. "Gyro, dodge that and use aerial ace on Blaziken."

The hardened swellow swooped to the left then right and gained ground by evading the thunder attack, by flying so low to the ground that one would think it was running instead of using its magnificent wings. With a quick barrel-roll the swellow was in-front of the blaziken who stood in a defensive stance. With great reflexes, Gyro flipped himself upward where he was engulfed in a bright white light that blinded the audience for a brief moment. In a flash of streaking white glory, Gyro launched himself at Axel while the jolteon beside the blaziken tried to interfere.

It was a clash of feathers and strength, but as the dazzling light faded it revealed that the mighty blaziken was slightly bruised, and the swellow fluttered away with a bleeding eye.

Dallas' scowl soon turned into a sadistic smirk as he decided to redeem himself. "Wrath use earth power!"

The camerupt nodded in agreement, and lifted both of his front legs and brought them heavily down onto the field's surface. The attack shook the entire field and would have shaken the auditorium, had it not been for the shock absorbing bars cleverly laid about the place.

Axel ran towards the camerupt but as soon as the hooves came hurtling down towards the ground, he managed to leaped into the air. Forgotten by her partner, Kid tried to catch up to the fast blaziken without noticing the impeding attack that would befall her. The jolteon was thrown into the air, while a sharp-eyed air expert took the opportunity into his own hands.

"Gyro! Use wing attack on that jolteon before he lands!" Aaron commanded, as the jolteon's trainer cried out for her injured partner.

Gwen sadly looked on at her teammate who had clenched her fists tightly as the swellow spread out his brilliant wings and bowled over his victim.

"Axel use sky uppercut on that thing!" Gwen angrily called out as the jolteon landed with a heavy thud against the ground.

Axel moved almost at an unreal speed across remaining distance of the field where the offending pokemon stood. With glowing fists the blaziken hit the large Wrath skyward. The attack sent Gyro in a small frenzy to save the humongous camerupt, but as if knowing the attempt to save his friend would possible end their chances of winning this battle, Gyro just flew helplessly beside the falling pokemon until Wrath hit the ground with a painful grunt.

"Nicely done, Axel!" Gwen called out to her pokemon. The blaziken gave a feather thumbs-up before giving the cheering crowd a slight bow.

Kit on the other hand yelled words of encouragement to the wounded Kid, who stood on wobbly legs. With a small bark, Kid shook herself to regain some lost electricity, and trudged on toward the pokemon who almost sent her to a blissful sleep.

"Snag that large wanna-be flying type, Wrath! Watch yourself, Aero!" Dallas told the bawling camerupt and his battle partner as he tried to get the camerupt to actually do something.

Wrath looked at his trainer pitifully before letting out a small moan. He turned himself in a small circle and continued to bawl while the fight raged on.

"Kid, use rain dance then thunder!" Kit screamed before the other trainers could think of their next move.

Her jolteon reacted quickly for an injured pokemon, and soon as the trainers heard the words for themselves, Kid was already dancing for the rain to come while the static in her fur built up.

"Gyro! Move!" Aaron yelled for his swellow, but alas, the timing was too late.

Kid let all the pent up static free, shooting towards the pure flying type as the rain clouds appeared to hover around the field. Droplets of rain began to gently fall down, before switching to a downpour of heavy water.

The water hissed angrily as it fell onto both Axel's and Wrath's hot fire-type bodies. Both inwardly cringed as more water poured onto them.

Gyro drifted in and out of consciousness as he spiraled towards the wet grass. He tried hard to stay awake, but the fatigue of using all those powerful moves before and the injuries he sustained were aching for the bliss that only sleep could provide.

Aaron could only watch with a sad frown as his lovely bird crashed into the ground. As if he read the thoughts right out of his Gyro's mind, Aaron knew that his beautiful bird would not rise again for the rest of the match.

Whether it was the fury of watching his new friend Gyro being knocked out, or the anger from the water that was falling on to his fuzzy head, it was safe to say that Wrath was not happy.

With a deep and slightly painful breathe, Wrath let loose a large spiral of white fire that hit Kid with enough force to knock her out of the match. On the other side of the field, Axel brushed the charred bits of feathers off himself and rushed towards Wrath, who angrily charged him as well.

"Wrath! Use overheat once more!" Dallas called to the rampaging pokemon, unsure whether or not Wrath had heard him at all.

"Oh no you don't! Axel use blaze kick!" Gwen yelled to her tired pokemon, who gave a small sigh before twisting his body to propel his leg forward as his leg became engulfed in fire. Wrath snorted out smoke in rage as the rain continued to pour without its dancer.

Wrath bawled once more before letting loose an inferno from his mouth, as the two pokemon were within feet of each other. Axel kicked the other fire type hard in the snout as the fire erupted from Wrath's throat and enclosed him in its bittersweet embrace.

In pain, Wrath quickly turned and hurried back to his trainer in hopes of relief for the burns that scorched him as Axel laid splayed out in mess of burnt feathers and dented pride.

The referee took his position in the center of the field and declared loudly, "The winners of this double battle are the Air faction!" He signaled the winning side with a raised hand, and with the other motioned the standby pokemon doctor who was patiently prepping for the patients to come forward.

The entertained audience applauded and cheered for the victory; even the Earth faction's members, just to be good sports.

Pumped with adrenaline and the strong, intoxicating smell of victory, Dallas turned to his partner and remarked, "Too easy. Even with my weakest pokemon they were no match. Right, Aero?"

Aero lazily plopped himself onto the bench and glanced at Dallas in the corner of his eye before replying, "I'm glad its over already."

The winning faction co-captains looked on as the nurse tended to their pokemon. Wrath pitifully bawled as a soft boiled egg was fed to him, a few pieces escaping his mouth and falling helplessly to the ground; much to the dismay of the nurse. Dallas only groaned at his camerupt's display, wishing that one day Wrath could at least battle without crying. Maybe one day...

"Well, I guess I need to work on Kid's defense. If Papa saw that little mishap of mine.. Oh! He would have made me study the books even more," Kit muttered to herself as she cocked her head to the side and pondered absentmindedly.

"I should have picked Xion," Gwen mused to her companion who blinked at her, confused.

"Who?" The reddish brown-haired girl questioned, while debating to herself internally whether or not to go check on her Kid while the ground keeper cleared the battlefield for the next battle.

Gwen gave Kit a clearly annoyed look before answering haggardly, "My sneasel. Remember? I told you this just a hour before the meeting."

When she received no indications of her teammate's realization, Gwen could only take the girl by the sleeve and tug her towards the bench where she knew she was going to have to explain everything they planned earlier that day.

Our favorite anthrophobic boy was seated a few rows away from everyone after the terrible and heart pounding ordeal of simple greetings between new students. Slightly paranoid, Josh jittered about; his eyes darting side to side, watching all of the movements that seem appear closer than they really were. _'Where did Hawke go...?' _The distinct pitter-patter of shoes, in a momentarily quiet setting, seem to send Josh in a small frenzy to turn around and identify the owners of the noise; who happened to be a pair of older women that had paused a couple of rows behind him.

His breathe hitched as he found their eyes staring deeply into his own, and quite possibly penetrating his very soul with the intensity the one with a long ponytail was giving him.

The one with a pleasant smile motioned him to come here with a slight curl of her finger, which oddly enough made Josh almost comply as if his mind wasn't already struggling not to panic once again. Regaining control over his quivering and jolting mind, Josh tightly gripped his seat's back as he asked, "Is th-th-there some- something wr-wr-wrong?" He quickly pushed down the knot of anxiety that threatened to overcome his somewhat rightful mind.

"Eyes up here, mister!" The pony-tailed-woman yelled at him as his eyes trailed back down to their feet to escape the menacing glare she was giving him. Josh shivered at her ferocity and quietly obeyed her command by slowly drawing his eyes back up to their level.

The robed woman who had smiled at him before gave her partner a slight pat on the arm, before commenting, "If one scares the nervous squirtle into his shell, how will one pull him back out?"

Rather confused by the woman's words, Josh stared at the rather odd pair before the robed woman returned his gaze.

"What's your name, kid?" The gruff voice betrayed its beautiful owner, as the taller woman of the pair placed her hands on hips and waited for Josh to answer.

"J-Joshua Michaels, M-m-ma'am!" he provided, hastily straighten himself as the pair watched him with mild amusement.

The robed woman reached into her left robe sleeve and pulled out a small notepad. "My dear, I am the great Princess Paprika," she told the boy, while scribbling something illegible on the first sheet of the notepad.

"Not this again," her partner groaned in slight annoyance, before folding her arms in front of her. "Her name is Miss Ereni to you, kid! She is the History and Science teacher here at the academy. I'm Miss Fay." She gave Josh a thin lipped frown before continuing on. "Now tell us, what happened earlier?"

Josh found his mouth parched of any moisture, and his voice once again left him, leaving the poor mute boy at the merciless math teacher's mercy. This seem to agitate Ms. Fay even further as she towered over the boy across the chairs, staring grimly at the boy with brown eyes tinged with yellow.

"Are you causing fights amongst students, Mister Michaels? Do I need to straighten you out in my class? I just want you to know that once you are put in my class, you will not be allowed to transfer out, do I make myself clear?" she growled.

Josh weakly swallowed empty air as the math teacher glowered beside her rather calm partner, who found an odd amusement in his pain.

"Miss Fay! There is a rabid rattata in the girl's bathroom!" a voice shrieked out, as Miss Fay began to reach over and grab the shivering Josh. Miss Fay whirled around in a heartbeat and walked towards the shaking girl who looked rather pale. "I'll be back for you, Mister Michaels!" she promised as she talked out of ear-shot to the random girl.

Miss Eneri took a step closer to the frightened Josh and with a mystic air around her, bent down to his eye level. With her odd ashy black-hair with its wisps escaping from her hair bun, and the billowing robe draping over her like a child wearing her mother's dress, Josh could have sworn the woman was a sorceress as she uttered, "When the squirtle comes out of his shell, he will discover that fear is consuming, maddening, and utterly disastrous. If he wants to live in this world of woes, sorrows, and hate, he will need to come out of his shell and stay out; unless the madness consumes him first with its tempting comforts of security and ever-knowing knowledge."

And with that, Miss Eneri left a baffled Josh in her wake as she, along with Miss Fay, faded into the background after the tale of a rabid rattata.

"Nice job, Skitty-boy. I leave you to your own devices and you make a enemy out of Miss Fay. Clearly you need a babysitter," a returning Hawke commented as she stood up from a nearby chair and waltzed over to the befuddled boy.

Josh looked past her with a perplexed expression before gazing at his hands, mystified, as Miss Eneri's words echoed in his head.

"What's up with that guy?" a wavy-haired youth asked as he watched Josh trying to talk to Miss Fay.

"Beats me, Jay," a voice that tickled Jay's neck hairs spoke, causing the fourteen-year old to jump around in fright.

"How many times have I told you not to do that dude!" The dude, Milo, just shrugged indifferently before seating himself beside the panting boy.

Jay extracted his revenge by roughly giving his friend a noogie, causing both boys to laugh in good humor as they settled down and watched the next two teams prepare to battle. Milo fixed his oddly dyed navy-blue hair back into his grey eyes, to shield them from the school's spotlights. Jay bit back a laugh as Milo carefully placed the two random red streaks of hair beside his ears in what he called fashionable taste, which Jay could easily distinguish as just being weird.

"I stopped counting a while ago," Milo replied as he deemed his hair 'fixed', and nudged his companion who in return sighed heavily.

A rather uninterested Matt returned to the middle of the farthest sideline and asked briefly, "Water faction and Fire faction; are your teams ready?"

Both teams nodded in agreement, and with a sweep of the hand the referee signaled them to release their pokemon. Nash and Samantha threw out their pokeballs, both sharing a small smile as their partners emerged from the bright light.

"You think we got this in the bag, Nash?" Samantha asked her teammate as her grovyle stretched out leisurely and watched Nash with slight glare.

The young man tweaked his rather long nose, and with a sly smirk answered very proudly, "Yes, and so much more." With a sharp short whistle his ninetales immediately perked up his ears and twisted his head towards their opponents, letting loose a snarl as the other team released a haunter and an aggron.

"Begin!" The referee yelled, waving a green flag to give them the go-ahead.

Zeref! Use your leaf blade against aggron!" Samantha yelled to her partner as their team's pokemon raced across the field towards their slower and larger rivals.

Zeref obediently followed his trainer's order as he zipped towards the dual type pokemon with an extended arm, that was covered in a sharp leaf in shape of a sword's blade. Holic quickly acted against the attack on his partner by commanding, "Banshee use hypnosis on that over-sized bug type!"

The haunter, Banshee, gave a odd cackling screech as if he were laughing as he floated swiftly towards Zeref who was almost upon the aggron. In mere seconds the haunter was beside Zeref, using his eyes to slowly subdue the grass-type into a lulling sleep that promised great satisfaction and bliss.

"You do realize that grovyle is a grass type, right?" Jet questioned his teammate as Banshee successfully managed to hypnotize Zeref into place.

"Er- Yeah of course! I was just insulting them, that's all!" Holic answered, rather jumbled as he tried to convince his partner that it was indeed intentional. The only reaction he received was a roll of the eyes, and a command sent to the aggron that stood off from the battle as Sun launched his canine body at the haunter who held his battle partner hostage.

With a flick of his eyes, Jet turned to his attention to the opposing team's ninetales and commanded, "Aggron use iron tail and earthquake!"

The large pokemon roared in either fright or joy, neither of the teams could tell, and launched himself towards the feuding Sun and Banshee beside a sleeping Zeref.

Banshee tried using confuse ray on Sun, but the ninetales was too quick for him to launch the attack without missing. Aggron swished his large, scaly tail towards the fire-type and squealed in excitement when the ninetales was pushed with a great force into the ground. Sun tried to bring himself back up but the devilish Banshee held him down in the crater that fitted Sun's body perfectly. With a slight drop of Banshee's head, Aggron roared loudly and swung his tail repeatedly onto the ground causing the entire battlefield to quiver and shake.

With Sam busy yelling for her pokemon to wake up, Nash took it upon himself to try and defeat the other team. "Sun! Please get up and use Flamethrower!"

The extremely weak Sun whined in pain as he struggled to get up, but Banshee held him down with a greater strength. Holic felt pity for the weak and tired ninetales who once battled with great valor, and with that decided to end its misery in this battle. "Banshee finish him off with shadow punch."

Zeref awoke to a heavy thud and whirled around in wobble to see his battle partner, who before his sleep was healthy and strong, was now unconscious with his rival holding a ghostly fist to his cheek. In anger, Zeref charged to the strong duo with his trainer calling after to him. "Zeref! Wait, I have a plan!"

"Samantha hurry! We might have a chance if he hits hard enough!" Nash tried to plead to his teammate as Zeref viciously slammed into the haunter that cradled his battle partner's head.

"O-oh okay! Uhm..call me Sammy, please and oh! Zeref! Use slash and slam again!" she said rather mildly, as she fidgeted with the sleeves of her jacket.

"Aggron, use metal claw!"

"Banshee try and contain that blasted grovyle with confuse ray!" The water faction battlers shouted simultaneously.

Their pokemon looked at them, rather confused at the ramble of words that was inaudible and somewhat understood the basics of the phrases.

Aggron twirled his body around, letting the momentum carry his heavy tail towards the angry Zeref, and was surprised when the grass-type leaped onto it and ran up his backside. Zeref flicked out his sharp claws and began to slash at the back of aggron's head in a mad frenzy. Aggron tried with all his might to throw Zeref off of him, but to no avail. Zeref would only sink his claws deeper into the rough skin and hold on as Aggron tried to buck him off.

In a mad hurry, Banshee floated up to the same level as Zeref and quickly began to let loose his prepared confuse ray. The rays seem to not be effected at first, but soon the grovyle began to struggle to stay balanced on the aggron's back. With a final heave, the aggron launched Zeref flying into the air with Banshee following him. Aggron trailed after the falling duo with a metal claw unsheathed and prepped for action with an intent of finishing the battle.

Zeref landed with a 'thump' and rolled over onto his back to find a glowing black fist already swinging towards him. Banshee let loose his eerie laughter as the grovyle fell back to the ground in a faint, the crowd cheering all the while as the referee announced who won the match.

Every faction member gave each other a compliment of "Good match" or "Nice battle", with the promise of doing it again sometime, as the victors walked to their benches for a brief rest.

"Well there's always next time," Sammy told her partner happily as she walked towards an odd looking doctor who was already treating her Zeref's wounds.

Nash's smile drooped at bit at the loss but brightened when he found his ninetales already sitting up and looking at him with adoration. He greeted his beautiful Sun with a friendly hug and helped bandage the slightly bleeding wound on Sun's scarred one-toed leg.

"This is suh-weet!" Jet exclaimed happily while he bounced repeatedly on the wooden bench to the annoyance of his friend.

"Yeah, those points are ours. So will you quit that?" Holic told Jet, rather irritated as he tried to think of a new strategy.

Jet tried to contain his energy by twiddling his thumbs, but found the excitement of winning the first tournament to be so thrilling! He, for the sake of Holic's sanity, raced to the side of his aggron who was eating a Oran berry, quite relaxed that the battle was done for now.

"So Brayden do you think Jet and Holic will beat your brother and Aero?" A voice from a brown-haired student asked another who looked very identical to Dallas.

"Who knows, Sean?" Brayden replied, silently hoping his brother Dallas would lose for the sake of not hurting himself.

"What about you, Marcus?" Sean demanded, only to get light snore as an answer from the blue-haired youth who comfortably laid on the ground near them.

"Forget it, your team is going down," a feminine voice taunted, as the owner of the voice looked up to them from her seat.

"Not a chance, Catherine. Even if we do, at least our group won a battle unlike yours," Sean shot back to the rough looking girl, who in return huffed and flipped the boy off. Sean smiled cheekily at Brayden, who sighed at the squabble and returned to reading a rather girly battle magazine. A forgotten student amongst the experienced crowd began to distance himself from his arguable teammate as she began provoke Sean.

The final two teams stood proudly with their pokemon beside them. A rather fat looking Sealeo laid beside Dallas, as he poked Aero's own Farfetch'd that look rather tempted to smack the delinquent with his leek. Aero gave his teammate a nudge with his foot as the referee looked at them, rather unnerved at the sudden switch from battle pros to awkward pair.

A long, green snake unwrapped itself from Holic's body in a graceful slither, and made itself known by rising to its greatest height, hissing softly at the competition as a Rhydon joined it's side. The Water faction members in the crowd began to whisper frantically as the Water faction duo high-fived each other in great choices of pokemon.

The school's referee patiently waited for the school's headmaster to give his final speech before the last battle, only to wait several minutes and see Matt curled up against a rather stupid looking spheal who drooled absentmindedly onto the sleeping man.

Finding a teacher who signaled him to go on, the referee sighed heavily before announcing, "This is the final battle of this tournament! This match decides who wins the first five points for their Faction. Trainers! **Begin**!"

**Author Notes:** Sorry about some of the OCs from last chapter not showing up again this chapter but we had to introduce new ones and only included the others for obvious reasons. There will be a listing of the points all the Factions have once a competition has been completed.

- New OCs introduced:

Jayden Hawkins

Robin Fay

Milo Strandon

Catherine Anne Burgles

Marcus Benjamin

Brayden Carson

Irene Eneri

I would say who sent these OC's in but my Internet will not let me open my pm! I'm sorry!


	4. Winners and Promises

Hello readers! You all are probably thinking 'Are these people going to pause 'The Sapling' as school starts?'. No we are not! We'll just be a bit slower than normal of course. All the positions from last chapter are still up for grabs so send them in!

Brief Review:

Air Faction: Dallas and Aaron "Aero".

Water Faction: Jet and Dom "Holic".

Dedicated to the extravagant and elegant Miss Shade who believes that we hate her for her critiques. Deary, we love you and love when you tell us what's wrong.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4<strong>

The final competitors stood on either side of the battlefield, eagerly waiting for the referee to give them the go ahead. The soon-to-be battling Air faction members gave each other a brief glance, as they mentally picked a new pokemon from their own team to wage war against the opposing faction. On the other side of the well-worn field, Holic and Jet playfully elbowed each other as they readily grabbed their dynamic duo pokeballs to finish the competition.

With a wave of the flag the boys threw out their pokeballs, and waited for the referee to shout the command to start.

Jet's newly released rhydon roared at the other team, and she proudly gave a hearty punch to the ground while swishing her tail dangerously close to the serperior beside her; who looked at the rock-type with distaste for her lack of seriousness.

Their opponents had also changed their pokemon, to Dallas' sealeo and Aero's farfetch'd.

A rather prideful sealeo glanced at Dallas with a look that said clearly Stay-out-of-my-way, and with a rather gruff purr egged on the rather odd brown bird beside her. The Air faction members in the crowd grinned madly as they recognized Aero's farfetch'd, Rocco, whose well known short-temper and leek smacking skills were infamous around the school.

Dallas groaned as his partner questioned the sealeo's expression with a quirk of a dark brown eyebrow. Aero brushed off the lack of response as he watched their opponents for a sign of a less obvious weakness.

The referee raised his flags after making sure each competitor was ready and announced, "This is the final battle of this tournament! Winning this battle will give the victorious faction five points. Trainers, let this battle begin!"

"Pride! I want you to-," Dallas started to call out to his sealeo, but a swift well-practiced glare from said pokemon sent him into a blank state,"-eh?"

After hearing his partner's slight failure with a rather snobby Pride, Aero called out to his farfetch'd, "Air Cutter on Serperior, and also stay near Pride, Rocco!"

The infamous Rocco nodded his feathered head, and with swift work of his webbed feet charged towards the grass snake. With a sweep of his wings Rocco sent a large razor-edged gust of air towards the serperior and rhydon.

"Hmph, amateurs," Holic murmured to his partner as he motioned his slithering JoJo to counterattack.

Jet grinned in agreement and yelled, "Rhydon, how about we show this birdbrain how to battle? Try Rock Tomb on that farfetch'd, then Dig!"

Rocco's sharp wind whistled as it swept through the air and landed frighteningly close to the swift JoJo. The serperior coiled herself like a spring, and unraveled just so to propel her into an air dive towards Rocco. Rocco whipped out his leek sword and with a brave face on jumped towards the snake, hell-bent on slaying the grass-type 'dragon'.

Pride on the other side of the field watched with mild interest as she prepared her ice ball. The sphere of solid water looked menacing as the battle between JoJo and Rocco reflected off of it. Rhydon paid close attention to Pride's attack as she launched boulder after boulder towards the squabbling pair.

JoJo had coiled herself snugly around the fighting Rocco when the boulders were launched. She unhappily threw Rocco into the flying rock as she scampered out of the way, letting out a rueful cry towards her partner as the rhydon innocently flexed her muscles for the crowd's display. With a hiss JoJo launched a barrage of sharpened leaves toward the bored Pride, who herself sent out a large Ice Ball to the rather showy rhydon.

Aero winced as his farfetch'd was roughly crushed by the large boulder, and struggled to pull himself out from under it.

Dallas, on the other side of his battle partner, whispered a few profanities under his breathe as he tried once again to get the 'queen' to listen to him. "Pride! At least _try _to help Rocco!"

Pride gave her trainer a intense glare, before gliding on a stream of rushing water towards the rhydon who released a pair of gleaming claws.

"...Now!" Jet called out to his rhydon, as the sealeo was almost upon her.

Rhydon began to dig downward with lightning reflexes, as the impeding queen barreled towards her.

"Drown that overgrown lizard, Pride!" The Air Faction member Dallas commanded, taking the hole the creature made into a advantage.

"Intercept with Leaf Blade JoJo!" Holic instructed.

The serperior obediently followed the orders and slapped the dual-type with thick twig that spouted of her leaf 'limb', as Pride tried to flood the gaping hole in the ground.

"Rocco! Please get up! You got this, come on!" shouted Aero, encouraging the trapped brown bird. Rocco gave an audible sigh, and tried once more to move the large boulder off his injured body, but to no avail.

Pride gave a snort, and used her tail to slap JoJo out of her bubble, while continuing to use Waterfall into the hole where rhydon disappeared into.

"Again, JoJo!"

The Water Faction member's pokemon nodded and coiled herself back into a knot, and once again propelled herself into the air. But to everyone's amazement, she was knocked aside when a leek sword stabbed her in the side and shifted her momentum, making her tumble on the side of the field.

With a sly smirk and eyes filled with angry tears from his situation, Rocco gave another heave against the boulder and was filled with a new energy as the boulder gave way from the weakened earth, and tilted to its side.

Rhydon dug her way underneath a unsuspecting sealeo who was busy filling one of rhydon's many holes.

"Rhydon! Rock Tomb, now!" Jet commanded, throwing his fist into the air as his pokemon took action.

"Oh no you don't! Pride watch the rhydon!" Dallas advised the snooty sealeo, who twisted her large blue body around and watched her surroundings with a careful cerulean eye.

The battlefield shook with a great ferocity that caused the faction trainers and the referee to fall to the ground, onto unsteady hands and jumbled legs. It was revealed that both giant boulders that rhydon had thrown had completely missed!

Rocco collapsed on his side as the pain from being crushed by an enormous rock captured him like a caterpie in a pidgey's beak.

"Finish him with cut!" Jet yelled to his rhydon, who sprinted past the wary Pride to a fading Rocco.

"Pride!" Dallas called out; to remind the sealeo she had a partner to look out for.

Pride, with the help of a rapidly forming wave beneath her, fought to catch up to the fast rhydon who threatened her potential of winning this battle. Aero watched with a sad frown as the end of his partner's battle drew near; it was almost exactly like what happen in the last battle they had just fought in. Perhaps he needed to practice a bit more..his battling tactics were growing to be known and predicted, battle after battle.

"JoJo, keep Pride away from rhydon!" Holic ordered the grass-type.

Against her trainer's order, Jojo sat there as she concluded that she had no way to actually catch up to the sealeo.

The audience held a collective breathe as the sealeo and rhydon faced off; racing toward a potential game changer. Pride formed a Ice Ball as rhydon tried to cut her, and was about to throw the icy attack at the blundering ground-type when a punch landed on her cheek and sent the ice orb towards her partner.

The ball connected and sent the poor bird flying into the air. The entire stadium watched in an eerie silence as Rocco fell to the ground with a soft thud, and was pronounced unfit to battle with a wave of the ref's flag.

Aero rubbed his face hard with the palms of his calloused hands and sat, defeated, on the dirt next to his partner. Dallas gave an unnoticed slightly awkward pat to his fellow Air Faction member's shoulder, before returning his forest green eyes back to the field.

"Pride! I want you to use Ice Ball and Waterfall! Don't Rest till I give the signal!" Dallas instructed, and the tone in which he gave the order sent the sealeo an odd vibe that seem to say, 'Do this and I'll leave you alone'.

As if someone put her on repeat, the hostile Pride continuously shot balls of icy fury towards her opponents, who dodged them as if their life depended on it.

"I think we can finish the sealeo off if we use both Leech Seed, Coil, and Cut," Holic whispered to his partner, as his JoJo suffered frostbite from the latest ice ball that managed to connect.

Jet pondered it over as he watched rhydon try to cut Pride, only to be pushed back by the sealeo charging after her. He turned to his friend and nodded rapidly in agreement as Pride switched her target.

"Rhydon! Cut!"

"JoJo! Leech Seed then Coil!"

JoJo and rhydon gave each other a shared glanced at their odd trainers, who eagerly began to shake with excitement from their latest plan. Rhydon grabbed the serperior who slithered next to her and threw JoJo into the air, where the snake launched seed after seed at the bottom of Pride's body. The seeds immediately began to glow with health and fueled JoJo's energy as the grass-type sailed through the air and nose-dived into Pride's large belly.

Rhydon was quick on her feet and distracted the angry pokemon by faking the move Rock Tomb, and was pleased to see the dual-type fall for the trick.

The crowd began to cheer loudly; as the Water Faction team was almost victorious. A few newbies and Water Faction members, in odd unison, started to stomp their feet in a rocking beat.

Pride held on tight as she started to struggle against JoJo's hold. The grass snake gripped harder, as her battling partner soon joined them by finishing off the wiggling sealeo with a well-aimed punch to the temple.

The stands erupted into cheers, shouts of joy, and an ear-deafening roar of applause as the referee tried to announce the winners. As the excitement began to slowly cool down, the referee announced in his loudest voice, "Congratulations Water Faction members Jet Carden and Dom Haydu! You have won this part of the competition!"

The winning boys high-fived each other with adrenaline-pumped hands, and sprinted to the sidelines where they momentarily basked in the roar of the crowd before walking to their partners; greeting them with hugs and pats filled with happiness.

A devastated Dallas rubbed the bridge of his nose, and walked towards his recovering pokemon.

She growled angrily at the presence of a tall skeletal-looking man who tried to soothe her, with bribes of poke-treats which she had earlier deemed terrible for her royal tastes. The hunched doctor rubbed the top of Pride's head in attempt to calm the sealeo, but was given a slap from her flipper in response.

Dallas brushed aside the doctor and began to apathetically spray Pride's wounds with a potion as she tried to bite him in return. _Perhaps next time._

* * *

><p>Underneath the ecstatic youths' seats, Matt was being forced back towards the battlefield in a fit of unhappiness by three professionally dressed individuals; who sighed in annoyance at the antics of their boss.<p>

"Please! Come on, guys! Tournament is over! I promise that I will go straight back into the office! Swearzies ! Right after I pick-," he continued, as he tried to maneuver around his employees in a frenzy to escape the school's clutches.

The man who was physically keeping the Headmaster in place grunted in response as he tried his best to contain his boss with dwindling strength. "Ms. Parker? Can I get some help? My riding club doesn't prepare me enough to manhandle overgrown children," the rather tanned man muttered, as he tried to readjust his grip on the wiggling Matt.

" Sir! Get your ass in there before I throw it in there!" the tallest woman threatened, as she pulled out a well-worn pokeball and held her arm back as if to throw it at the frail man.

"If you do not give the final speech, Mister Fabian, I will presume that there is a possible assassin in the chairs, and will resort to questioning and finger printing all those who I deem suspicious. As your secretary, I will protect your life though it's probably not worth the price..." The newly identified secretary gave her black backpack a firm pat, careful not to hit any vital 'necessities' that could possible cause the entire auditorium to be evacuated.

Matt gave out a high-pitched whine, before he was lead by the small of his back by some oddly soft male hands to the field. The male teacher pushing him along whispered a small 'thank you' to the two women, as the blaring white lights of the auditorium spotted them.

"I'll go set up a safe place," Hannah Sapridge murmured to Matt, who only shivered in response at the paranoid woman.

"I'm sure that's not necessary, Ms. Sapridge. Ms. Parker here will most likely just keep the Headmaster _in_ the auditorium, and will protect him if there is any trouble," the young teacher assured the wide-eyed secretary.

Ms. Sapridge shot him a look of mild amusement, before mouthing the words 'Battlefield Cleaning Supply Closet' to Matt. Then, she cautiously jogged down the field; her grey eyes flicking from side to side as she glanced down a hallway and sprinted, in heels mind you. A lavender stingy tail bobbed from under her collar as she disappeared around the corner, leaving the teachers to wonder in silence.

Matt breathed in a deep gulp of air, before giving the mic-set's switch on his head a flick. After the static calmed down a bit, Matt spoke into the digital device with his baritone voice. "Congratulations Water Faction! You win the first five points for your team this semester. Now with this piece of the competition gone, let's brief you bright and dazzling students about what's going to happen next."

Matt paused a minute to let the cheering of the students to die down once more, before motioning his togekiss to come with a wave of his hand. The togekiss glided around the stadium gracefully, gaining many admirers and giggles of "How pretty!" as she floated down towards her trainer, but most were curious why she was carrying a coat which seemed rather big for a summer's attire. Matt softly patted his angel and took the coat gently from her mouth, and proceeded to wrap the fluffy coat around himself; careful to watch his student's reactions.

"Gather your mittens, your winter coats, your scarves, and most of all a faction!" He told the students with a lop-sided grin. "We're heading to Mt. Coronet, and we're leaving soon. So if you do not have a faction by tomorrow morning as we load you guys on the bus, you will be forced to be my lackey for the day! And let's just say, I need accessories and fabulous clothes for every speech I will present during our stay. I have over twenty speeches planned, and _lord_ knows how many more Ms. Sapridge has given me since then!"

Matt pinched himself as his knees nearly gave way, and leaned heavily against Raine. He caught himself panting heavily as the crowd watched with both confusion and excitement. "I'm just so excited at what you kids are gonna do! Just be prepared for anything, especially if you're new!" He then waved the students off to go to class or pack, he didn't care which, as he climbed onto his beloved partner and murmured a request to fly them to his office.

The newbies in the crowd sat awkwardly as the more experienced student bustled about, filled with good mirth and humor as they recalled what horrors they had to endure when they first went to Mt. Coronet. Meanwhile, teachers that were stationed around the youths began to instruct everyone to the large courtyard in front of the auditorium, to sign up for whatever faction they so choose, and to immediately begin to pack for the buses that would leave at eight o'clock, _sharp_.

* * *

><p>After successfully managing to evade the majority of the student groups that hurried to join their faction, Josh was about to disappear in a newly discovered exit when a firm hand caught him by the shoulder.<p>

"And where do you think you're going, Mister...?

Josh jumped in surprise, and twisted around to face this new person.

"M-M-Mich-Michaels," Josh stuttered, as he found a dark brown-haired adult looming over him who was patiently awaiting an answer.

"Did you notice the way the students were heading, Mister Michaels? By the look of you it seems you have no idea where you're going. Do you need some help, Mister Michaels?" The man inquired as he bent himself down to face the already quivering boy.

"Ye-yes I-I'm fine. Just g-g-going to the bathroom," Josh lied, hoping to Arceus that something would draw the assumed teacher's attention away from him.

"Are you alright? You seem rather pale. I think we should head to Dr. Faust. He'll fix you up... or give you a new arm. But hey; things will be easier to do with three arms. I'm Mister Roberts by the way," The young teacher chuckled, holding his hand out for the student to shake in a friendly manner.

Josh hesitantly held his hand, and suppressed a shiver of fear when the man firmly grabbed his small hand into his larger and much softer one. Puzzled by the softness, Josh openly stared at the palm of his own hand for a moment, and looked up to see Mr. Roberts' beaming smile.

"Will you look at that? A firm handshake! Haven't had one of those with new students in what... two years? I'm beginning to like you, kid! Say..would you like to join my riding club? If you don't have a ride-able pokemon, I have some for students to borrow!" Chet told the boy, who seem to edge himself away from the rather eccentric man one footstep at a time.

"Hello Chet, lovely day to join a certain riding club isn't it?" Hawke asked 'Chet', walking out from a large group of kids that had recently passed by the two newly acquainted males.

"Oh it is indeed, Miss Hawkings! I have my sign-up sheet right... here... somewhere..." Mr. Roberts excitedly replied as he fumbled around his pockets to find that blasted paper.

Hawke grinned while she absentmindedly began to pick at the bandage on her freckled nose. Josh could only stand tight as the teacher continued to search for the sigh-up sheet, while nervously laughing at his slight misfortune.

After twinking her tie that was cleverly hidden underneath her silver vest, Hawke cleared her throat and with a serene smirk said, "I guess I'll lead Skitty-boy out to join a faction, _Mister _Roberts. Maybe next time you'll be more prepared."

Mister Roberts nodded in agreement with a puzzled expression, as he looked once more at his limited pockets; thinking he surely didn't leave it in his classroom.

As the pair of students began to leave the company of Mister Roberts, a new but familiar voice joined in, "Well there you are, Josh!"

The teacher and Josh turned to see Lauren and her band of newbies walking up them.

"Oh well, more the merry as they say! Let's herd all of you new young'ins to the Faction board," Mister Roberts told the group, as he pushed the nearest two students by their back towards the largest exit to the courtyard.

Josh let out a sigh of relief as he made it out of the stadium with none of the newbie band following him, and Mister Roberts clearly distracted by Lauren who shyly fluttered her eyelashes at him.

The anthrophobic managed to let out a small smile as he walked to the nearest wooden pane, which had numerous papers hanging of it. Each title of the papers had either a silly chant or dark title to them all of which symbolized their faction in some way or another.

When suddenly Josh heard a small cry of his name. He whirled around to find a lopsided green-haired boy..._'What was his name again?' _Josh thought to himself as he desperately tried to grab the broken memories from earlier.

Josh stared at the boy who did a little nervous dance on one foot at a time before switching to the next. "My name is Collin!" he reminded Josh, his three hairs floating in happiness as he bounced around the newbie.

"Y-yes! That's right," Josh murmured, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

Collin shrugged at his new acquaintance's antics, and tugged Josh's shirt towards the large sign-up board and began to scribble his name on a random Faction's new member sheet.

"We should be on the same team, Josh!" Collin told him as he handed the black-haired boy the pen.

Josh nodded uneasily, but didn't feel the need to rush into a faction. He turned to leave so he could find Matt and talk about his condition, when he ran into a chest covered by a black shirt. The owner of the chest looked down at the boy with a frown and growled, "Watch it newbie."

"Hey Dallas!" Collin greeted the Air's Co-captain with a grin, before moving aside to let him move. Dallas responded with a grunt before noticing the pen in Josh's hand.

"Oh no no no! I'm not having _my _faction be swamped with newbies! This kid is alright, he'll be a great water boy but not this kid!" Dallas exclaimed, as he gestured towards Josh with frantic hand motions. "What's your name, newbie?"

"J-J-J-Josh." Josh squeaked in response to the taller boy in front of him

Dallas rushed the few steps that separated him from the sign-up sheet, and let out a sigh of relief to find no Josh on the list. He marched back over to the boys.

"Go over there, the both of you." Dallas instructed the two boys while pointing to small booth besides the Air Faction stand.

The pair swallowed the knots in their throats and quicklywalked to the bench where Josh held onto himself pleading, '_I don't want to die today! Really I don't! Please Arceus just let me live!"_

"You think he'll let you in?" Collin whispered to Josh, who already broke out in a nervous sweat and sat at the other end of the sturdy bench.

Josh gaped at the boy before grumbling something inaudible in a mad sort of tone.

Collin bashfully shook his head at his stupidity, and stared at the mismatched colors laces he decided to wear that day.

"This booth full yet?" a comforting voice asked as she walked to the Air Faction's booth.

"H-H-Hawke!" Josh exclaimed rather happily before rethinking how that sounded and looked around for the threatening Dallas.

"What?" Hawke asked rather boredly as she noticed Collin staring at her jacket without his eyes open...?

"Oh _great... She's _here," Dallas unhappily remarked as he walked up to the trio.

"Well well, hello there, _Dally_," Hawke greeted the older boy with a sincere smile, before focusing back onto the paling boys. "Scaring the new students again, Dally? We should work on your people skills, and maybe then you can actually lose _some less than desirable_ company."

Dallas replied to that by baring his teeth and yanking the girl to the side, where he whispered very angrily while keeping an eye on what was going on around them.

The boys looked at each other rather nervously, as the pair continued to speak in almost inaudible voices. When they returned, Dallas had a slightly miffed expression whereas Hawke looked slightly amused, and plucked Josh's pen out of his clasped hands. She then skipped to the Air Faction's board and wrote down a pair of names, before returning the pen back to a slightly pissed Dallas.

"I'll keep my promise, Dally!" Hawke happily told the brooding boy with an odd smile, before walking off towards a group of peppy girls that seemed to react in horror at her arrival.

"Only _cute_ girls can call me Dally, you witch!" Dallas snapped, but Hawke had already found her newest victim and ignored the comment.

Josh unsteadily stood up and began to walk away from the blonde co-captain, when said male called out to him, "Hey, Josh."

Slightly perplexed, Josh prepared himself for the worst as turned around to find a neutral expression adorning Dallas' face. "Watch your back, newbie"

Taking a shaky breathe at the older peer's advice, Josh nodded in understanding rather than agreement, and proceeded to 'flee' the area before some other upperclassmen found him as an easy target.

* * *

><p>Back in the school's dormitories, many students were preparing their suitcases for anything that could possible occur; which many upperclassmen had advised. In one shabby looking dorm, a young man named Chase was packing his favorite pair of walkie-talkies beside a emergency flashlight, which he bought later that day after heeding the advice.<p>

"Can you believe that we're only going to Mount Coronet? I just can't wait to be kin- I mean a faction member," Chase sang to his roommate, giving a slight chuckle when he stumbled over his words a bit.

Theo shrugged at his roommate's song as he packed his bags. He slowly checked and double-checked that he had everything he probably owned, in both suitcases he found hidden in his closet. After patting the yellow and black fox beside him, Theo deemed his luggage packed and rested on his small bed with the umbreon curling up around his wrist, which sported a new crimson wristband.

His roommate, who was wearing a identical one, threw a shirt messily into pile of clothes that he had managed to shove into his suitcase already.

Chase finished stuffing his bag, and flopped ungracefully on a shirt-riddled bed and asked,"You don't say much, do you?"

"Not really," Theo answered rather flatly as he closed his chilling blue eyes to slip away from this torturous world.

Chase groaned, unsatisfied with his roommate's answer, and began to play with his golden brown hair for mild amusement before deeming it as fun as giving his grandma a sponge-bath.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, in the female section of the school's dorms, our great debater Catherine had begun to recall all her pokemon back into their pokeballs; after making sure everyone was healthy and full from the nutritional supper the school had brought them.<p>

The other girl in the room watched Catherine as she flashed her crimson armband towards the girl's own aqua colored wristband. _Mortal enemies and roommates... how terrific._

"So who are you?" Catherine asked rather gruffly, as she forced her bag shut with minimal arm strength.

"My name is Dahrria, but normally everyone calls me Dare," her roommate replied, while fidgeting with the spirals of her butterfree notebook. Three bidoofs lazed about her feet, as she carefully tried to gather all of her poetry journals and pencils scattered about the room.

Catherine eyed the girl thoughtfully, and found no deception lurking in her voice. "I'm Catherine. Let's stay friends, okay? I don't care what faction you are in as long as you have my back. Deal?"

"Deal," Dare murmured, as the bidoofs decided to rampage around the room and create a even bigger mess of pencils, paper, and clothes. She gave a small giggle which resulted in Catherine laughing broadly at the squabbling bidoofs. The pair soon looked at each other, and a laughing fest began to leak out. Soon, they couldn't stop as the bidoofs nibbled on their toes and hair ends; prompting more squeals of laughter.

_This could be the start of a beautiful friendship._

* * *

><p><strong>Current points standing:<strong> (This will be up every-time a competition has been completed.)

Water: 5

Air: 0

Earth: 0

Fire: 0

**New OCs introduced:**

Chet Roberts by Pan

Hannah Sapridge by Waterburgerlover

Allison Parker by FirebirdXOX (Fawkes)

Theo Eckhart by Wind Spirit Kazuya

Dahrria Normandy by iamabeemee

Remember: Read, Review, Munch on some snacks, tell us if we have gotten your character a bit OOC, and to enjoy~


	5. Troubling Snowflakes

Wow it's been a while hasn't it readers? As the school year trudges by it seems even slower but don't worry! We're still here and kicking under all this homework that's been piling up. So without further ado, here's your chapter!

Dedicated to Fawkes! Even with little to no computer time for herself during these finals weeks, she helped us edit this chapter and keep the story going!

* * *

><p>Rachael opened the door to her apartment with a sigh, as another day of arguing with lawyers took its toll on her. She lifted her drooping eyes to gaze about the dark room, searching for any possible indication of her foster child still being awake. Finding none, the older woman took off her rather worn heels off and sent them flying to the couch with a flick of her hand, where they landed with a slight 'thump'. She walked barefooted towards the kitchen where a cup of cold coffee sat calling her name. After plucking one of the few coffee mugs that wasn't stained, Rachael poured her 'lifeline' into the cup. She then released her partner, who greeted her with a soft call of 'gollllddduck'. The pokemon stretched his limbs before eyeing the dishes that piled over the sink and onto the counter beside it.<p>

"You don't have to do the dishes, Daniel," Rachael told him, but the golduck shook his head in a disapproving fashion and went to work by using a small stream of Aqua Jet on the dish he held in his webbed hand. Rachael made a mental note to reward her partner before the night was over, and left the kitchen with a small twirl on the ball of her foot.

The slim woman strolled down the hallway until she heard a sound coming from Josh's room. Rachael grabbed the doorknob, and opened it inch by inch as silently as she could. Past the door revealed a snoozing Josh, wrapped in his blankets like a metapod. His drapion laid below his bed, snoring loudly which surprisingly didn't wake the shy boy. Rachael took a tentative step into his room as the snoring continued its duet with Josh's occasional light whistle. She managed to get to the base of his bed, while avoiding the numerous items the boy had deemed not fit to take along with him on his first school trip. Suddenly, a pair of tiny hands latched onto her leg.

Rachael quickly reacted by biting her tongue and turning towards the appendage's owner with a fist when the cold hands grabbed her own. She managed not to flush with embarrassment as she recognized Josh's froslass, who looked at her with mild confusion. Hoping the ice type didn't take offense, Rachael bent down to Glacia's level and patted her lovingly on the back until the pokemon decided to climb onto the bed. She could only watch as the froslass, with almost perfect grace, managed to settle herself by the quiet boy without so much as causing a wrinkle on the crumpled blanket that twisted and turn in all sorts of directions.

Rachael felt herself envying Glacia as she reflected on how much closer the pokemon got to the sleeping boy than Rachael did when he was awake. Never in her life did she ever think she could be so jealous of a pokemon. '_Is it so wrong of me to feel this way,'_ she thought to herself,_ ' to be so envious of a pokemon because of how close she can get to Josh when he's awake?' _

The twenty-eight year old felt very impatient with herself. Here she was already complaining about the lack of affection from her foster child , when she had only gained custody a few months ago. She wanted to change Josh from shy to a bit social, but was it truly as innocent as she thought it would be? Rachael shook her head at her own confusion as if to shake the thoughts from her head when..

_**Crash!**_

The sound of a dish colliding onto the floor echoed through out the house, instantly making Rachael spin towards the direction of the door in surprise. A small mutter of gibberish made her turn back around toward her foster son, who shifted deeper in his slumber after awakening briefly to stretch his restless limbs. She sighed in relief, the tension leaving her body as the drapion continued to snore heavily and Josh returned to his peaceful sleep. The froslass beside the young teen blinked heavily with sleep, before giving Rachael a knowing look that made the woman wonder if the froslass could sense her jealousy.

Finding it a bit queer, Rachael nodded back hesitantly before leaving the messy room, letting the occupants sleep in her absence. She returned to the kitchen in a slight hurry to discover the cause of the noise, and found Daniel sitting on the floor with a bump on his head and an innocent puddle of soapy water beside him. The woman cautiously walked to her partner and checked the bruise with a gentle brush of her fingers.

Rachael could only let out a small sigh as she went to work on the golduck and the bubbly mess around them. It will be a while before she would get any sleep.

* * *

><p>Josh couldn't have felt any worse than he did right now. He felt like a miltank being loaded into a trailer with the whole barn. He and Collin stood in a ongoing line of people and baggage, who were all waiting to load one of two buses that would take them to their destination in Sinnoh, by ferry and road. Other students milled about the area, as teachers tried their best to keep everything moving and the Headmaster twirled about the students; only stopping when someone caught his attention for a small chat.<p>

Collin was trying to hold a conversation with Josh as they slowly inched forward toward their bus, but only received nods and shakes of the head in response to his questions. Josh, on the other hand, was trying in vain to conceal that fact he was possibly having a panic attack. Despite his best efforts, he continued shaking like a leaf and flushing as people began to close in around the pair.

"Why don't store companies control a limited amount of masterballs? I mean if they sold each ball for a slightly higher price and had a limited stock, people would be clamoring for them! It's the best way to get more customers and more money!" Collin rambled as Ms. Fay pushed him onto the bus. He threatened to stop her progress by pausing every few feet to use exaggerating hand gestures.

Josh only shook his head and stepped backwards when the rather irritated teacher tried to push him forward to get the line going again.

"Mister Michaels! Move!" Ms. Fay growled out, as a student behind the pair pushed Josh as well. A few other students chimed in agreement, causing his stomach to twist in an unnatural knot of anxiety. The rather rough push sent Josh flying into the doorway and stumbling up the stairs after Collin, who continued to talk as though Josh hadn't left the conversation.

The bus smelled odd. It was like a mix of overly-strong perfume mixed with a waft of various snacks that smelled mouth-watering. Josh began to feel slightly dizzy as the fumes made him feel lightheaded, causing the boy to stumble over a pair of legs. Their owner responded with a swift kick to Josh's behind, which shot him forward and almost made him crash into Collin's long legs. Josh quickly regained his balance and held his nose hostage under his gold blazer, to keep his head clear of the odor that seemed to thicken into a fog as they moved to the back of the bus.

The shy boy kept his distance from Collin as they maneuvered around the various purses and feet that infiltrated the small walkway. To his relief, which many could argue, Josh spotted a familiar face bearing an odd smile. Josh worked his way around the green-haired boy, and practically sighed in relief that he wouldn't have to be next to the chatterbox.

Just as soon as the relief filled him, horror began to ooze through Josh's bloodstream as a familiar person sat in his intended seat beside Hawke. He recognized the young man as one of the Water Faction's co-captions, Holic. Dread and panic filled Josh's mind as he desperately looked for an empty seat.

The last of the students were already claiming the few seats left and Josh desperately did not want to anger Ms. Fay again by being the only one standing dumbly in the aisle. He shuddered at the thought of being the unfortunate soul that would be seated next to her, when he spotted a seat not far off from where he was.

What a blessing! Perhaps Arceus was listening after all!

Josh dove into the seat before another student stole his salvation from him, forcing him to sit next to _her_!

"Oh! Well hello there Josh!" A _very _familiar voice greeted him. Lauren Silverfeather. Oh shit.

"H-h-hi," Josh squeaked as Lauren turned toward him and watched him with hazels eyes, her smile growing as she leaned in closer to the young teen.

"Aw! You're such a sweetie, diving into your seat just to make sure I had a seat buddy! Too bad you didn't join the Earth Faction. We could have been faction buddies. Wait! You can totally change when we get there! It will be a great experience for everyone," Lauren exclaimed happily as she flashed him her bronze armband. "Us newbies gotta stick together! If not, that Crow or whatever girl will screw you up. My new friend, one of the co-captains of Earth- I think her name was KatKit or something- said that Crow over there started some sort of issue between students from our school and our rival's last year. A kid went to the hospital and was in critical condition! She said that if someone hadn't called the police when they did, he could have died!"

Josh bit back the impulse to correct the excited girl, when a face popped up beside the two from the space between the headrests. "It's true that incident happened, but isn't because of Hawke. My partner isn't exactly truthful... but that's not the point," the new voice muttered before continuing, "What started that fight was because those imbeciles at the Twilight Academy thought they were a tough bunch and came over to start something."

Both Lauren and Josh turned towards Gwen as she finished explaining what had truly happened. Gwen nodded in a righteous fashion, and fell back against her plush chair as Lauren asked, "Really?"

Gwen nodded again at the girl's question before turning to the boy beside her and chatting about the latest edition of a book series they been reading.

Just as Lauren turned back to Josh with a barrage of topics and questions for him to talk about, a loud feminine voice called out, "Alright, students! We are now leaving so sit your butts down and keep all pokemon inside their pokeballs! I will not have any battling on this bus, whether intentional or not, so all must go in!"

All the students turned towards the rather irritated woman who stood at the head of the bus beside the bus driver. The tall, hardened looking woman readjusted her brightly colored blouse as she continued, "My name is Ms. Parker, for those lucky enough not to have already met me. Now keep to your seats you brats, this ride is already long enough without you guys running around."

"Good luck with that," a snarky voice called out from the back. The students giggled and snorted at the rather sarcastic response.

"Thank you for volunteering to take everyone's baggage to their rooms, Dallas. I'll make sure you don't miss a single duffel bag. Good thing you won the last challenge. Oh wait a second, you didn't. Well maybe if you 'practiced' more instead of being a slacker your faction could have won," Mrs. Parker replied rather harshly as she pointed to Dallas, who responded with a sharp glare.

The students quickly oohed and murmured variations of 'ow burn', before settling down as the bus lurched forward and off they went- with Josh desperately trying to find another person to switch seats with him. His stomach threatened to heave whenever the girl beside him tried to latch herself onto his arm, while twirling a ebony lock of his hair between her fingers.

* * *

><p>After sitting on a ferry for at least five hours, the bus rolled down the ramp to the safety of Sinnoh's Canalave City's port, and parked in the harbor's parking lot. The students stretched and roamed around the small rest stop near the port, for the Headmaster decided it would be a great place for a moment's rest and a place to refuel the buses.<p>

Josh looked on at the rather dreary scenery, while milling about the various crates that used to hold numerous goods until he found a sturdy one that could hold his weight. Finding no teachers around and other various students with their own pokemon out, Josh decided to let out his own two partners. With twin bright flashes a froslass and drapion stood in front of him expectantly.

With a slight wave of a thin hand, Josh motioned the drapion to the left and away from the shadows the crates beside him created. Glacia gave her trainer a miffed expression, before settling herself in those shadows to stay cool from the blistering sun. Josh pulled out his notebook from his satchel without even giving any acknowledgement of her jealousy. The drapion grinned a scaly smile towards the pouting froslass until Josh muttered a small, "Venom, quit teasing Glacia and pose."

Venom immediately repositioned himself into a striking stance, as Josh began to make a rough draft of the creature on his piece of paper. The sounds of scratching and and erasing that his pencil made and the various wingulls that shrieked occasionally were the only sounds around them, until a yell startled the team.

"Milo! Get back here! If you don't listen to me, you **will **be joining Dallas in luggage handling!"

The chestnut-haired teen gave a lopsided smirk as he ran from a gaining , who was followed by her leaping mightyena. Glacia quickly jumped up and used Ice Beam on a patch of pavement, just moments before the teen's foot landed on it as he tried to race past the group. The ice patch sent the teen flying into the air and right on top of Venom, who grunted angrily in response.

Venom growled in annoyance before tossing Milo a few feet away from him. Milo landed with a hard 'thud' in front of Ms. Parker- who didn't even break a sweat- and her loyal companion. Her mightyena clamped his array of pointed teeth on Milo's silver shirt's collar, making escape from the teacher's wrath impossible. Milo gulped in fright and pleaded at Josh's pokemon for help as Ms. Parker hauled him onto his feet with a swift tug of his shirt.

The teacher gave a slight nod towards the trio in thanks and turned back towards the buses, with a pessimistic Milo muttering about how he wanted his burial, and what kind of 'entertainers' he wanted there to keep his 'bros' from getting bored.

A loud call for the students to return to their buses echoed throughout the student-filled lot just as Josh began to return to his new project. He could only sigh in misery as his seat buddy called for him to hurry up as she bounced up the steps. A really, _really _long ride...

* * *

><p>It was daybreak when the buses pulled back onto the road after almost a day of driving. The majority of the students slept as the buses continued on the journey towards Mt. Coronet, the safest and smallest of all mountains in the pokeuniverse. Little by little the students awakened to find themselves in awkward or uncomfortable positions- from odd neck angles to laying on the crotch of the girl beside you...<p>

Josh quickly straightened himself into a stiff sitting position, away from the girl he just treated like a warm human-pillow. He felt unclean. What in the name of Arceus happened to cause him to fall in such a position! Josh was tainted. He also needed a bath. Not those sissy bubbly baths that his mother always took, he needed a tub filled with warm water and hard soap where he would rub his skin raw until this taint disappeared.

Josh jumped instinctively as his pocket vibrated; bearing the news that he had a text message. After making sure the vibration didn't wake the sleeping girl beside him, Josh awkwardly pulled out the phone as he tried not to accidentally to elbow her. He was a bit surprised when he saw he had a message from Rachael. Josh paused a moment, before pressing the select button to read the short message that basically said that his foster mother hoped he was having fun and to stay safe.

The boy brushed it off, as an odd feeling of warm uneasiness began to sink deeply into his stomach.

A sudden lurch of the bus nearly sent him and a few slumbering students to the floor, as it came to a rough halt. Students all around complained as they picked up their belongings-or in some cases themselves- off the walkway. Many of them stretched out 'sleeping' limbs, as the driver opened the bus' door- letting in a burst of blood-numbing cold air.

Purple eyes scanned over the riders of the bus, their owner grinning madly while he bounced up each step like a school girl. Students either smiled or grimaced instantly as they recognized Matt in his new black fuzzy winter jacket.

"Well greetings everyone! Have a nice trip?" Matt asked the students, resulting in a unison of groans and flying bits of food. "Well, anyways, I need all of the Water Faction's members real quick.''

The selective faction members chattered mindlessly while exiting the bus. The Water Faction stepped down the steps into a foot of snow- which beckoned a few members to shiver and complain as they trudged to an awaiting Matt and Mr. Roberts, both of which had numerous supplies in piles around them decorated in specific faction colors. Both teacher and headmaster handed each student a heavy-duty backpack encumbered with mysterious supplies, that peaked the curiosity of the newer pupils.

After each member received their own necessity, Matt led them to a rusty-looking ski lift where he gestured them to sit in pairs on one of three lifts. "Well I guess you guys managed to already figure it out," he announced as they sat awkwardly to keep the cold metal from biting through their new thick aqua jackets.

The inexperienced members of the Water Faction gave the man a puzzled look, looking around in case they missed some sort of sign that was obvious to the other members. "Ah...no?" Matt stated, confusion and awkwardness settling in the air as Matt swallowed a gulp of air.

"Well then...As you can see we are on top of mountain," Matt waved his arm back in a exaggerating motion as a few heads nodded dumbly in agreement, "The challenge is for you, whether individually or in a large group, is to scale down the mountain with the school's flag we strategically placed throughout the snowy decline. If you separate into groups each group will need to snag a flag. Also I would like to mention that there are some traps set along the mountain, which I guarantee will not kill you...maybe maim but we'll see, so be wary of those as well as snow depth. Packed snow will hold you up and loose snow will not. Oh, don't forget this is not a controlled area so there will be numerous wildlife around here so try not to provoke them into mutilating your body beyond recognition alright? Any questions?" Matt told the group with a slight sweeping motion of his quaking arms.

The tentative hand of Dare shot up in a instant, waving to and fro as if to make sure the headmaster can't ignore it.

"Yes, dear?" He asked, pointing to the girl to make sure that _she _knew he wasn't trying ignore her... at the moment...

"Are there any medics or teachers around to make sure the students don't...well.._die?_'' She piped.

"Ah yes. All the teachers, save for Mr. Roberts and me, are around the mountains paths and are there to both help the student if necessary or to take any injured, disqualified, or students who just given up to the hotel where Ms. Sapridge and Dr. Faust will be waiting."

Matt paused a bit to look at Mr. Roberts, who began to choke on a 'snowflake' at the mere mention of the two. He continued only after the pokemon rider began to breathe normally again. "That reminds me; if you or a member of your faction give up, bring the wrong flag back to base, or do something incredibly stupid, your team will lose a point. And why yes, points are allowed to go into the negatives. Toodles~" He told them with a angelic smile, as he kicked the lever that was cleverly camouflaged besides him.

Immediately the ski lift sprang to life, lurching forward with a loud 'clank' and climbing the rest of the mountain.

It was up to the faction members themselves to survive the majority of this, most of them thought, just as the ski lift shuddered with a booming crack and sent everyone spiralling towards the snow in an array of screams.

* * *

><p>And that's it for now! We made both bad jokes and a cliffhanger in this. We're bad people aren't we? Eh. This chapter was terrible to write. It felt so filler-y and no one did anything fun except Josh of course! eye brow waggle/ But now the Water Faction may be dead, Hawke might have a new friend, Dr. Faust could possibly have a few corpses to play with, and Matt got a snazzy new jacket! So it wasn't a completely bad chapter!:)

Happy Holidays, guys! You know, just in case we can't upload another chapter before the big events:)! Have no fear! The winter break is here and hopefully another chapter of The Sapling near will be next year!


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